Justin Timberlake buys ownership stake in MySpace

The actor and singer has reportedly purchased an ownership stake in MySpace, along with fellow buyer Specific Media. The former N’SNYC member, who played Facebook president and Napster co-founder Sean Parker in The Social Network, will help revamp the diminished website, which the pair just purchased for a mere $35 million from News Corp. According to the Associated Press, Timberlake will take an office at the MySpace headquarters in Beverly Hills, and have a staff of about six people working for him “around the clock,” as Specific Media CEO Tim Vanderhook put it. Specific Media hopes that Timberlake’s celebrity and sway in the music community can help MySpace build upon its success with musicians.

MySpace has been on a downward spiral for years, driven deeper as Facebook skyrocketed in popularity. The $35 million deal is a bargain compared to the $580 million News Corp paid for the site in 2005. (Facebook first launched in 2004.) That’s a loss of $545 million, or 94 percent of the company’s investment. Despite this, News Corp will retain a 5 percent stake in MySpace.


Vanderhook says that, with Timberlake’s help, they can breath new life into the website by focusing on video content, including original shows. The new MySpace will also involve a major upgrade in technology, as well as the an effort to maintain the rights to music that was posted to the site through its partnership venture with major record labels, MySpace Music. MadOne

Human Hand Controlled by Cyborg Attachment

Since early man banged out the first sharp rock, our hands have served as humanity's primary means for controlling technology. Thanks to some robotics researchers in Japan, it seems the tables have turned. By attaching electrodes and a computer to precise points on the wrist, scientists at the University of Tokyo have crafted a device that controls a human hand well enough for the hand's owner to play an instrument far better than their natural skill level would otherwise allow.

Eerily named "PossessedHand," the project began as a way to teach people how to play a Japanese harp called the koto. Electrodes attach to muscles in the arm, and force those muscles to flex. The PossessedHand doesn't produce enough force to totally control the hand, but instead prods the user to make the correct finger motion needed to play the koto.

The PossessedHand isn't the first device of this kind, but it is the most precise. Physical therapists already use cruder non-invasive electrodes for general muscle stimulation, but none of the devices currently in use can produce the coordinated fine motor work needed to play an instrument. As one would expect, test subjects were not altogether thrilled with abdicating control of their hands to a machine, according to New Scientist. However, once that initial fear of robot control subsides, the PossessedHand could find use in a number of muscle-learning situations. Obviously, the device could teach people how to play an instrument, but it could also speed up physical therapy and rehab, helping people who have sustained debilitating injuries relearn how to use their altered bodies. Technews Daily

Men's fashion week - Louis Vuitton

H&M coming to India

The Swedish retailer is in talks with the country's leading mall developers, planning to open its first local store within the next year, Times of India reports. "Sources said H&M has had recent meetings with mall developers...," the paper writes. "These discussions were informal as H&M is keen on firming up a viable business model for a key growth market like India."

H&M Forum Shops Caesars Palace, Las Vegas

The chain's main competitor, Spanish retailer Zara, already has four stores in the country, and plans to add more, according to ToI. Moving into India seems a smart move for any clothing brand: according to a new study by market research company Harris Interactive, more than 90 percent of Indians like shopping for clothes, compared to only around 40 percent in the US or France. MadOne

Bright galaxy sheds light on early Universe

This NASA image obtained in February 2011 shows black holes.

Light from a bright, ancient galaxy with a super-massive black hole at its core, a finding that would help explain aspects of the young Universe. The phenomenon is called a quasar, which are very bright but very distant galaxies with a mighty black hole at their heart. 

Measurements show the quasar's black hole has a mass about two billion times that of the Sun, a size hard to reconcile with current theories. Super-massive black holes, according to a common hypothesis, should take billions of years to build up as they gradually suck in matter from their surroundings.
AFP

Air Jordan 5 Quai 54 Black

Air Jordan 5
Quai 54 Black

Air Jordan 5
Quai 54 Black

Air Jordan 14 Light Graphite/Midnight Navy-Black

Air Jordan 14 Light Graphite/Midnight Navy-Black

Air Jordan 14
Light Graphite/Midnight Navy-Black
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October 2011

Snoop Dogg - GGN Double G News Network: Episode 5

Extreme Weather On the Horizon

Epic floods, massive wildfires, drought and the deadliest tornado season in 60 years are ravaging the United States, with scientists warning that climate change will bring even more extreme weather. The human and economic toll over just the past few months has been staggering: hundreds of people have died, and thousands of homes and millions of acres have been lost at a cost estimated at more than $20 billion. And the United States has not even entered peak hurricane season. 

Climate change could bring less tornadoes, because while a warmer atmosphere will absorb more precipitation, causing more storms, it could also reduce the wind shear that builds storm intensity when cold and warm fronts collide. However, the intensity of future droughts, heat waves, storms and floods is expected to rise drastically if greenhouse gas emissions don't stabilize soon, said Michael Mann, a scientist at Penn State University. "Even a couple degree warming can make a 100-year event a three-year event," Mann, the head of the university's earth systems science center, told AFP.

More extreme weather is expected in the coming months, said Jon Gottschalck, head of forecast operations at NOAA's climate prediction center. 
Mira Oberman | AFP

Snoop Dogg - Double G News Network: Episode 4

High court to rule on GPS tracking

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has added a couple of high-profile constitutional challenges to its lineup of cases for next term: One looking at governmental regulation of television content and the other dealing with the authority of police to use a GPS device to track a suspect's movements without a warrant. 

In the GPS case, the court will decide whether the police need a warrant before using the device to track a suspect's movements. The justices agreed to hear the Obama administration's appeal of a court ruling that favored a criminal defendant. The federal appeals court in Washington overturned a criminal conviction because the police had no warrant for the GPS device they secretly installed on a man's car. Other appeals courts have ruled that search warrants aren't necessary for GPS tracking. The Justice Department argued that warrantless use of GPS devices does not violate the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches. It also said prompt resolution of the divergent court opinions is critically important to law enforcement.

A three-judge panel of Democratic and Republican appointees unanimously threw out the conviction and life sentence of Antoine Jones of Washington, D.C., a nightclub owner convicted of operating a cocaine distribution ring. The Justice Department said GPS devices are especially useful in early stages of an investigation, when they can eliminate the use of time-consuming stakeouts as officers seek to gather evidence.

Hitachi to join Toshiba-Sony LCD panel merger

(Reuters) - Hitachi Ltd wants to join the ongoing talks between Toshiba Corp and Sony Corp to combine their units that make small and mid-size LCD panels, the Nikkei business daily reported. Toshiba, Sony and Hitachi aim to reach an agreement in July and the newly created LCD unit could be launched as early as this year, the paper said. 

On June 7, Reuters reported citing sources that Toshiba Corp and Sony Corp are in talks to combine their units that make small and mid-size LCD panels for smartphones and tablet computers and may sell a stake in the new entity to the Japanese government for about $1.2 billion. The public-private partnership Innovation Network Corp of Japan, or INCJ, is likely to invest about 200 billion yen ($2.47 billion)for about a 70 percent stake consisting of preferred and common shares, Nikkei said, adding that the three companies would then split the remaining interest.